Breaking Olds: Google Is Collecting Way More Data From Android Users Than Apple Collects from iOS Users

Dan Goodin, reporting for Ars Technica:

[…] a researcher has provided a side-by-side comparison that suggests that, while both iOS and Android collect handset data around the clock—even when devices are idle, just out of the box, or after users have opted out—the Google mobile OS collects about 20 times as much data as its Apple competitor.

Google and Apple have both disputed aspects of this “research,” and there are glaringly obvious shortfalls to the methods the researchers used, but the basic findings are still probably pretty close to the truth. Of course Google collects as much data as they can, that’s how they make money. Their statement saying that the research was off by an order of magnitude probably means that they’re underestimating how much data Google scrapes: I wouldn’t be surprised if it were 200x the amount Apple takes.